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Tangtang Zhao, 34, of Chicago worked for a pharmacy that distributed and administered vaccines – and with them the vax cards -- at its locations nationwide, Justice Department Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. said.
Zhao got his hands on 125 authentic Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccination cards that he sold to nearly a dozen different buyers for $10 each, Polite said.
“Knowingly selling COVID vaccination cards to unvaccinated individuals puts millions of Americans at risk of serious injury or death,” said Emmerson Buie Jr., the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Chicago Field Office.
“To put such a small price on the safety of our nation is not only an insult to those who are doing their part in the fight to stop COVID-19 but a federal crime with serious consequences,” he added.
Zhao was arrested on an indictment returned in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago that charges him with 12 counts of theft of government property following an investigation by the FBI and The Office of Inspector General for the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
Federal authorities have also intercepted bundles of counterfeit vaccination cards, some of which they said were shipped around the United States to unvaccinated buyers from Shenzhen, China.
SEE: Hundreds of Counterfeit COVID-19 Vaccinations Cards Seized
An Associated Press investigation turned up online accounts selling bogus cards for $25 to $200 each.
SEE: Fake COVID-19 vaccination cards worry college officials
Making or buying bogus cards violates federal laws against the unauthorized use of an official government agency’s seal, the FBI says.
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